Benchmark educational requirements for CITPNZ

IT Professionals New Zealand provide a service confirming whether your degree-level (or above) qualification, in conjunction with subsequent learning, meets the benchmark educational requirements for Chartered IT Professional New Zealand (CITPNZ) certification, the professional certification for senior IT Professionals in New Zealand.

It should be noted that this is not a full CITPNZ assessment nor a skills assessment. It is an assessment of whether your qualifications and learning meet the benchmark educational requirements of CITPNZ. To gain CITPNZ itself, you must undertake a full assessment (details here).

Why undertake the ITP Qualification Recognition process?

You should undertake this process if:

Immigration New Zealand or NZQA requests it for your visa application

You want to know how your qualification, or base qualification and subsequent learning, compares to New Zealand industry expectations (using the CITPNZ benchmark requirements)

A potential employer or education provider requests that you undergo this process to assess your qualifications against the CITPNZ benchmark requirements

Qualification requirements

To be recognised as meeting the benchmark requirements of CITPNZ, your qualification(s) must be:

at the right level (NZQF level 7 or above), and

when combined with subsequent learning, meet the content benchmark requirements for CITPNZ

If you are undertaking this qualification recognition process for immigration purposes, you will need to hold a qualification equivalent to Level 7 on the NZ Qualifications Framework as a minimum requirement, the equivalent of a New Zealand Bachelors Degree. This does not have to be a strictly computing/IT degree, provided it is relevant to working in technology and you meet the rest of the benchmark requirements through subsequent learning.

For example, an advanced mathematics degree that is relevant but not specifically focused on Computing or IT, alongside additional sufficient IT-related learning and evidence that the learnings from the degree have been used in a technology context (eg AI), would likely meet the benchmark requirements, however the degree on its own would likely not be sufficient.

Determining the level

The NZ Qualifications Authority (NZQA) solely determines the level of your overseas qualification(s) compared to the NZ Qualifications Framework. Before you can start our Qualification Recognition process, your qualification will need to meet one of these requirements:

Be a degree issued by a New Zealand institution and at Level 7 or above on the NZ Qualifications Framework

Be from overseas and have been accredited under the Seoul Accord programme (check here)

Be from overseas and be on NZQA's List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment (check here)

Undertake an International Qualifications Assessment (IQA) with NZQA and have been assessed as equivalent to a Level 7 or above qualification.

Please note that we cannot start the content assessment process unless one of these level requirements has been met. If you need to undertake an IQA with NZQA, you need to do this prior to undertaking our Qualification Recognition process.

Qualification content requirements

We use an interpretation of the Seoul Accord graduate attributes as a base for assessment of whether applicants meet the benchmark academic requirements for CITPNZ. The Seoul Accord is the global degree accreditation programme run by professional bodies.

This means that your qualification and subsequent learning must be sufficient to allow you to:

Apply knowledge of computing fundamentals, knowledge of a computing specialisation, and mathematics, science, and appropriate domain knowledge to defined technology problems and requirements. This needs to be accomplished to a suitably high level of complexity and depth.

There are 10 criteria that the qualification and learning must satisfy to meet this requirement and therefore meet the benchmark educational requirements for CITPNZ. These are contained in the Qualification Recognition Guide.

Process of applying for Qualification Recognition

The Qualification Recognition service has the following steps. More details are in the Qualification Recognition Guide.

Provide evidence that your qualification is at the correct level (see Section 2 of the Guide). This may involve undertaking an International Qualifications Assessment (IQA) with NZQA. If so, this must be completed before you apply for Qualification Recognition from ITP.

Please note that we cannot start the qualification assessment process unless this requirement has been met first. If you need to undertake an IQA with NZQA, you need to complete this prior to undertaking our Qualification Recognition process. See Section 2 for more information.

Collect evidence that the content of your qualifications meet requirements (see Section 3 of the Guide). This includes an official transcript, official letter from your institution, or other such document, as well as details of content as outlined in the Evidence Document. If these are in a language other than English, an English language translation must also be provided.

Complete the ITPNZ Evidence Document (see Section 4 of the Guide) to outline how your qualification(s) and subsequent learning meets the educational benchmark requirements for CITPNZ.

Your application will be assigned to an assessor. We aim to complete assessments within 14 days. Assessments may take longer if there is heavy demand or we have requested additional information. For probity reasons we do not disclose who your assessor is.

The assessor may request additional information if there is insufficient evidence of meeting the benchmark educational requirements of CITPNZ. In this circumstance you will have one opportunity to submit additional information before the final determination is made.

We will then issue an official letter outlining whether or not your qualification meets the benchmark educational requirements for CITPNZ.

Download the documents

The following documents are necessary to apply for Qualification Recognition through this process:

Cost of the Qualification Recognition service

The qualification recognition service involves a detailed assessment of whether your qualification (and subsequent learning) meet the benchmark educational requirements for CITPNZ. There is a processing fee of $NZD191 for this service which covers the cost of assessment and issuing the letter.

Appeals and other options

We undertake a comprehensive assessment as part of this Qualification Recognition service, including an experienced and expert assessor reviewing all material. Once a decision has been made, we are unable to enter into further correspondence and no appeal process is available. We can only re-evaluate if circumstances change (eg additional learning is undertaken).

Please note that we can also issue a confirmation letter without this assessment if you hold CITPNZ and a Level 7 qualification - please see below.

No need for assessment if you hold CITPNZ

If you hold current CITPNZ certification as well as a degree that NZQA has found to be at Level 7 or above (using the methods outlined above), we are able to issue you a letter confirming that you meet these requirements without further assessment as you have already been assessed as meeting the benchmark requirements. In this circumstance there is no processing fee for providing this letter, however please contact us directly rather than lodging an application.

The CITPNZ application and assessment process is different and also takes into consideration "on the job" learning and practice-based factors, confirming whether you are operating at the level of a senior IT Professional. There is a cost to apply for CITPNZ.

Further enquiries

All enquiries about this service or your application must be made via email to immigration@itp.nz. Our Qualification Assessment team do not work out of our main office and all phone or in-person enquiries will be referred to this email address.

Note that under New Zealand law we are unable to help you with immigration advice.

Apply for ITP Qualification Recognition now

If you have electronic copies of the required documentation, evidence from NZQA that your base qualification is equivalent to Level 7 or above on the NZ Qualifications Framework (see above) and have completed the ITPNZ Evidence Document, use this link to upload your documents and apply:

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